[building irregular exhaust]

Have you thought about lofting it? Create nurbs curves that represent a cross-section of the exhaust, spread them out, and loft them. Pretty powerful stuff.

[Move Perpendicular]

I wish there was a slightly easier way to move an object parallel or perpendicular to itself. I have lots of walls that are at odd angles. If I need to move one 12", I have to select the wall, find it's angle, choose the move command, switch to polar, do the math on the odd angle, etc. It'd be nice if the move dialog had a way to grab the angle automatically, or if there was a way to constrain a drag-move to perpendicular and type a distance.

[Unfortunate changes from 10 to 11]

I've been wondering why a bunch of my scripts haven't been working since upgrade to 11. Ignored it for awhile, but dug into it today. Nemetschek changed the behavior of some functions. Ack! Here's a specific example:

h2 := ConverttoNurbs(h1, true);

If h1 was selected, then this function would result in both h1 and h2 being selected, so I could move one, group, and loft. But now it unselects h1, so move, group, and loft yield meaningless results.

Was this documented? Stinks to have to go into all scripts and find which ones are broken and find a new strategy for them, just be/c functions yield different results than before. Is there a good reason for the change? Hours of time lost.

Thoughts?

[PDF Files]

I do the same as Sofia, and it's worked really well, even for my most crowded pages. No pdf's been beyond a meg or so, and the service bureaus and clients on both Mac and Windows have been able to handle them without problems.

[hextrude oddity?]

Thanks for the response, Alexandre. I'd never used Begin/End, so wasn't aware that it, too, ignored view state. That's a real pain! Was hoping to avoid the aggravation of rotating and moving and aligning the objects...but, guess I gotta dig in...

Thanks...

[hextrude oddity?]

It seems as though hextrude assumes that you're working in top view. If you're in front or side views, hextrude extrudes differently than calling the Extrude menu command, which recognizes the view. That doesn't make sense to me. It's not always convenient to use the menu command in a script, but hextrude isn't doing what I need. Is this in fact true? Is this the way it's supposed to be? Does it still work this way in VW11? Can you think of a convenient workaround to extrude an object created in front/side view?

[What is up with render time?]

quote:

---

It takes about forty five minutes to a hour and fifteen to render then anotherhour at the least to export as image.

---

As long as you know that the rendering is the one you will want, you don't have to render it fully before then exporting it. You can select "Final Render" and then cmd-. to stop it immediately and go right to Export Image. Saves you about 1/2 the total time.

In fact, that's always irked me. I wish there was a way to set my rendering preferences, such as a palette??, so that I wouldn't have to choose the Render command to set the parameters used by export and go through that cmd-. stuff.

[organizing your set of drawings...]

I've evolved into a template with layers for the basic floor plan, the dimensions of that floor plan, the electrical, the plumbing, the hvac, the footer, title block, etc. My electrical page will then be a sheet that includes floor plan, electrical symbols, and title block. My plumbing page will be floor plan, plumbing specifics, and title block. Etc. Use classes for for line weights of center lines vs other types of lines, and for textures applied to one type of wall vs another. That makes it easy to change color/texture for many things at once. Also use class for two different types of lighting--a one-light quick render and a more formal (and much slower) skydome. Classes make it each to switch that back and forth.

[PRESS RELEASE]

Including QTVR and a feature to automatically set wall heights to a changing roofline or a nurbs surface!!!!!, plus some bug fixes I've been told have been implemented, makes this waaaaaaay exciting for me. Now gotta get a sense of its stability and which OSX version it works best on. This is awfully cool if it's ready for prime time!

[Hidden Line not hiding]

Two walls (of about 30) were messing this all up. Haven't figured out why these two could turn a hidden line render transparent, but that can be an exercise for another day. When I isolated them through a bunch of trial and error, deleted them, and then drew new ones and reset the wall peaks, it all worked fine. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

[Hidden Line not hiding]

To add to the mystery, I started a file by adding little bits of the other file and rendering to see if/when it failed to render w/ hidden lines. Found one little ol' 3' wall whose presence or absence made the new file render or not render. Then went to my original and deleted that wall, but the file still didn't render right. Oh well, I tried! Still, I can use the makeshift file for my elevations and sections for now.

[Hidden Line not hiding]

They are allllllll solid. Individually and collectively. If they weren't, the RW renderings would show them as lines rather than surfaces. Double and triple checked. What's really odd is that from some perspectives it will hidden line fine (Left ISO, for example), but from any of the angles needed for a NSEW elevation or a section, it screws up.

[Hidden Line not hiding]

Anyone think of anything that might keep a hidden line rendering from hiding hidden lines? The polygon, Renderworks, and OpenGL renders work fine, so it's nothing as obvious as transparent walls. This is preventing me from doing elevations and 3D sections......on a deadline, unfortunately. Sent file to NNA, but looking for clues here too. Some walls hide stuff behind, others don't and they seem to have all the same attributes. Seems hit and miss. Same with nurbs surfaces...some hide and some don't. Copied objects to a new file, with same results. Stumped on other possible explanations.

Mac OSX 10.2.6; VW 10.5

[Do Trees have Names?]

I like the image props and have used the trees with good success. Minor point, but do these have names other than tree1, tree2? It'd be much easier to know which to use if they had real names, and I haven't yet created a rendering of all of them so I could see what they are (yeah, and like I can tell an American Beech from a Hickory or whatever). Anyone yet map these to their horticultural equivalent?

[Wall-type popup]

For the walls, it'd be nice to have a popup menu on the tool bar listing the wall types. It'd save a lot of trips to the Select Wall Types dialog. I switch back and forth from CMU to frame to dome walls, and I never know which is currently selected without trial and error, and I tire of going to that dialog and scrolling through a long list to find the one I want. A popup right next to the buttons for setting cavities and picking left, center, right placement would save a lot of mousing.

[OIP Scrolling]

Why does the OIP have those unconventional up/down and page up/down buttons rather than a more traditional scroll bar? Every time I use it, I find myself wishing for just a regular ol' scroll bar, which would be a much faster way to get from top to bottom.

[End finish on base cabinets]

Why isn't their a "Both" for end finish on base cabinets? Neither left, right, peninsula, nor island cover the situation where a cabinet has nothing to the left or the right--it's against a wall at it's back, but not bordered by anything. Guess I could add another cabinet and make one left and the other right, but that's a bunch of extra work.

[Lose the position button]

The Position button on the OIP is a pain. Click, type, OK, click, type, OK...over and over. And each time the dialog comes up right over the symbol I'm moving so that I have to move the dialog to see the object. Can't see any reason for this info to not be directly in the OIP. Then I could type a dimension and press enter, type another dimension, etc. I'd save several clicks for each dimension change.

[Wrapping around a solid]

I want to create a tin can--easy enough--and then I want to create a design I can use to cut holes in the cylinder w/ Subtract Solids. I'd prefer to create the design for the cuts on a flat sheet, be/c I know the dimensions, and then wrap it around the cylinder. That's the part I can't figure out--how to roll a flat design into a cylinder. Ideas?

Corollary...is there a way to take a cylinder, open it, and flatten it to see the design in 2D?

[Wrapping around a solid]

Andrew, I do need to change the base object. I'm cutting holes in a dome design. The hard way is to design the openings flat and then rotate the pieces individually. Painful, but doable. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking the obvious.

[Wrapping around a solid]

Thanks, BaRa. At least that confirms I haven't missed something obvious.

[Newbie to 3d power pack]

Depends on the shape. If it has a very precise profile, with a thickened lip, etc, then sweep. If it's just a simple thing, then nurbs hemisphere with a shell.

[You must have seen that before: "unexpectedly quit"]

Consider the possibility that your script is causing memory problems, such as if you're deleting a non-existent handle, for example, or accessing bad memory locations. Don't know if that's the case, of course, but the symptoms you describe are consistent with that kind of thing. And that's the kind of thing that VW could not reasonably prevent in the running of a script. You'll likely have to check the script carefully, and run just pieces of it to see which segment is responsible for the problems.

[Zoom In Perspecitve Camera Limitations in VW?]

I sure agree that a camera would be more intuitive than the current setup. Until that day, I wrote, with help from other contributors, the following script that lets you manipulate the camera maybe more easily than the other tools. Play with it and maybe it gives you some ideas.

code:

---

{I made some tests with the following results: When I use the setting 'low

perspective' (don't know the correct expression in english, sorry), it's the

same as entering 24.41 for 'set perspective'. 'normal' is the same as 9.76

and high the same as 4.88. With Projection, proj = 1, the perspective is

always set to 9.76. And what I enter for viewDistance is substracted from

this value. (Control: GetView:offsetZ = 9.76 - Projection:viewDistance).

Procedure SetView:zDistance = 50, for example in perspective projection mode

is the same as Projection:viewDistance = -40.24. I don't know if there are

other circumstances influencing this results.

I hope this may help you a little bit.

Beat

}

Procedure Camera;

VAR

i :INTEGER;

yn :BOOLEAN;

h1 :HANDLE;

locationX,locationY,locationZ,targetX,targetY,targetZ,upX,upY,upZ, vd :REAL;

x1, x2, y1, y2, xx1, xx2, yy1, yy2 :REAL;

str :STRING;

BEGIN

{i := IntDialog('New zoom:','75');}

{ SetZoom(100);}

{param 1: 1 = perspective

param 2: 0 = wireframe

1 = unshaded poly

6 = hidden line

}

{if something is selected, use that, else assume a 50' bldg}

h1 := FSActLayer;

if (h1 = nil) then begin

xx1 := -25*12;

xx2 := 25*12;

yy1 := 25*12;

yy2 := -25*12;

end

else begin

while h1 <> nil DO BEGIN

GetBBox(h1, x1, y1, x2, y2);

if x1 < xx1 then xx1 := x1;

if x2 > xx2 then xx2 := x2;

if y1 > yy1 then yy1 := y1;

if y2 < yy2 then yy2 := y2;

h1 := NextSObj(h1);

end;

end;

locationY := -(xx2 - xx1);

locationZ := 5*12;

targetZ := 1*12;

str := StrDialog('Direction: N S E W:', 'S');

while not DidCancel do begin

UprString(str);

{vd := DistDialog('View distance value:',Num2StrF(400*12));}

vd := (xx2 - xx1) * 16;

Projection(1,0,vd,-400,-300,400,300);

if str = 'S' then locationY := -(xx2 - xx1);

if str = 'S' then locationX := 0;

if str = 'N' then locationY := (xx2 - xx1);

if str = 'N' then locationX := 0;

if str = 'W' then locationX := -(yy1 - yy2);

if str = 'W' then locationY := 0;

if str = 'E' then locationX := (yy1 - yy2);

if str = 'E' then locationY := 0;

yn := YNDialog('Set view automatically?');

if yn = TRUE then begin

locationZ := 5*12;

targetZ := 1*12;

end

else begin

PtDialog3D('Enter the 3D location:',Num2StrF(locationX),Num2StrF(locationY),Num2StrF(locationZ), locationX,locationY,locationZ);

PtDialog3D('Enter the 3D target:',Num2StrF(targetX),Num2StrF(targetY),Num2StrF(targetZ), targetX,targetY,targetZ);

end;

upx := 0;

upy := 0;

upz := 1;

SetViewVector(locationX*12,locationY*12,locationZ*12, targetX*12,targetY*12,targetZ*12, upX*12,upY*12,upZ*12);

ReDrawAll;

str := StrDialog('Direction: N S E W:', 'S');

end; {while not DidCancel}

END;

Run(Camera);

[/code]

[2D Rotate Tool options]

Hi Katie,

The key word is "irregular". For example, I'm going to place 8 sconces next to doors. The doors aren't regularly spaced, so clicking and using a vertex or existing object for alignment works a whole lot better than having to have regular offset angles. I'd use this to place vertices, outlets and all sorts of stuff. Being able to duplicate when rotating is maybe 70%, being able to multiply duplicate is the other 30%...if I'm prioritizing.

Thanks for asking.